Civic Leader Joe Issa Welcomes Registration of Jamaica’s First GI

Member of the St. Ann Chamber of Commerce Past President Association Joe Issa, who champions all things Jamaican, welcomes the Caribbean’s first geographical indication (GI) �" Jamaica Jerk.

 

Issa, a popular tourism guru who played a major role in popularizing Jamaica Jerk internationally, said “the acknowledgement of the product as a GI was long in coming, but expected the Uniquely-Jamaican jerk to pass the rigid tests associated with such applications.”

“We should be proud of another Jamaican first and do all that is necessary to keep the GI label, including maintaining the authenticity of the inputs and protecting them and the Jamaican Jerk product from piracy.

 

“We must not be complacent with just the GI stamp of approval on the product and packaging; we must remain vigilant of what is being sold in the shops under the Jamaica Jerk label and investigate suspect cases,” says Issa.

 

Founder of the popular Cool brand of products and an advocate of intellectual property rights having registered many through his Cool Group of companies, which are being leveraged internationally, was commenting on an article in the Jamaica Observer about the country’s first GI.

 

Executive Director of the Jamaica Intellectual Property Organisation (JIPO), Lillyclaire Bellamy, is reported to have told the newspaper that Jamaica has had a registered GI for Jamaican Jerk since last year, making the country the first in the English-speaking Caribbean to register a GI.

“We passed our laws and regulations and everything was completed by 2009, and in 2015 we registered the first geographical indication in the entire English-speaking Caribbean, which is Jamaica Jerk,” Bellamy was quoted as saying.

 

A GI, according to the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), “is a sign used on products that have a specific geographical origin and possess qualities or a reputation that are due to that origin…also, since the qualities depend on the geographical place of production, there is a clear link between the product and its place of origin,” the article said.

 

It stated that based on the stipulations, producers from very large to small had to come together to form the Jamaica Jerk Producers’ Association, which is to observe that every input that goes into Jamaica Jerk must come from Jamaica, and that if there is a shortage of any inputs, they cannot be imported.

 

The JIPO executive informed of a second application that is in process for a GI in rum, “as stakeholders are concerned that the basis of the rum industry remains in Jamaica because it forms a critical part of the local industry.”

 

She also informed that Intellectual Property Week will be observed from April 26 to 29 under the theme ‘Intellectual Property in the Digitised Age: Creativity, Culture, Piracy and Awareness’.

 

“Features of the week include a copyright seminar on the Marrakesh and Beijing

 

Treaties for the Disabled and Visually Impaired Communities and the public destruction of pirated products or material in conjunction with the Counter-Terrorism and Organised Crime branch of the Jamaica Constabulary Force,” the article said.